![]() Colman eventually proposes a marriage of convenience for his political career, which she accepts. Garson does not tell Colman that they were married and once had a child, hoping he will remember on his own. ![]() Colman, too, whose crisp, mannerly speech had been much parodied and mimicked back in the day, seems more at home in his guise as lord of the manor than the boyish and utterly lost John Smith. She is transformed, no longer the earthy, cheeky music hall lass, but sober, mature and as elegant as…well, as Greer Garson. We are amazed to see it is Greer Garson who walks in with her dictation pad. Years have passed, when he asks his secretary to step into his office. The plot takes a fascinating turn when Charles Rainer returns to his ancestral home and an executive office at the family firm. ![]() Colman to remember he is Charles Rainer, a wealthy aristocrat. Greer Garson, playing against type for once as an earthy music hall performer, takes the confused, escaping Colman under her wing and they begin a life together, which ends abruptly when being knocked down by a taxi is all it takes for Mr. He is called John Smith for the sake of convenience by the asylum staff, where he is taken to recover from his horrific experiences as an officer in World War I. In the world we live in today where we are drowning in documentation of our existence, and where thieves make a living trying to steal or exploit that documentation, it is hard to imagine a time when all Ronald Colman had to do was show up as a patient with amnesia for nobody to be able to determine who he really is. It is the improbability of such a film being made today that makes the movie irresistible to its fans. There is a third element which makes the plot twist intriguing, and that is the selfless and honorable attitude which the characters played by Greer Garson and Ronald Colman undertake out of their respect for each other. Overall, the performances and the basic outline of the story buoy the film, which could have taken more time to develop its characters.Two of the most compelling aspects of “Random Harvest” (1942) are the total absence of proof of identity leading to a new life, and the possibility that a person could fall in love with someone who he forgot he had already fallen in love with previously. The performances by Greer Garson and Ronald Colman are strong, and Garson's charms are on display both in her role as alluring dancer/singer, as efficient secretary, and as notable society wife. A good opportunity for a compelling scene is ignored, and the film suffers for it. What is more, the final resolution comes about solipsistically rather than spurred by the "secretary's" work. This is the "old movies" courtship that involves women and men speaking about marriage after the first or second meeting, but here it is more ridiculous considering the uncertainty of the man's position. The initial courtship between "Smithy" and Paula is so quick and seemingly insubstantial that it defies believability that she should so quickly give up her life for him. The plot of this film is excellent in its construction, but its execution lacks. A WWI amnesiac falls for a dancer, but their marriage fails when he loses his new memories and regains his old ones.
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